Theater-lovers share memories of Old Town as Cygnet prepares for its next chapter

When Cygnet Theatre wrapped its final performance of “Oklahoma!” in early August, it concluded not only the closing performance of its 20th season but its final show ever at the Old Town Theatre, setting the stage for its move to The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center — affectionately called The Joan — at Arts District Liberty Station.

Despite the cancellation of the closing-night performance of “Oklahoma!” due to an illness within the cast, the production marked the end of an incredibly successful residency for Cygnet Theatre, which has managed and operated the theater in Old Town since 2008.

The company began as a hope and a dream in 2003 — to create a theater that would compete with the likes of the Old Globe in Balboa Park. Cygnet, or young swan, represented the new up-and-coming company perfectly, the company’s co-founder and executive director, Bill Schmidt, said.

“So basically, Cygnet got its name from … you know, in Elizabethan times, the main rival for the Globe Theatre in London was the Swan Theatre and so we called ourselves Cygnet,” he said. “It’s a baby swan … kind of as a tongue-in-cheek joke that we’re after you, Old Globe.”

Now after 20 seasons, Cygnet’s founders and those who know the company best look back on its time in Old Town and their ever-present desire to produce the highest quality theater in San Diego.

Michael Cusimano has graced the Old Town Theatre stage many times, including his debut in “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show” in 2016. Most recently, he was the romantic lead Curly McLain in “Oklahoma!” He recalls the care and connection Cygnet’s co-founder and artistic director Sean Murray took when showing him the stage for the first time.

“He was playing Frank-N-Furter and I was playing Riff Raff, and we walked in and he was sort of describing how the set was going to look,” Cusimano recalled. “I just kind of sat on the lip of the stage, and I had this very warm, excited butterflies feeling of like, ‘Wow, this is going to be a really special production because the theater is so intimate.’”

Cusimano and Murray, like many artists, thrive on that intimacy and have fond memories of the red barn known today as the Old Town Theatre. It stands as a piece of San Diego theatrical history and, like “Oklahoma!,” is a reminder of a time long gone but not necessarily forgotten.

The original barn-style space traces its roots to a theater company created by Edythe Pirazzini in 1957. In Mission Valley, as many historical accounts have mentioned, a “barn that still smelled like a barn” sat where the current Hanalei Hotel resides on Hotel Circle North. Once a hotel was built on the site, Pirazzini created the Mission Playhouse, a 74-seat space in the Old Town State Park on Mason Street.

In 1973, the California Department of Parks and Recreation decided that the Mission Playhouse would be demolished. Another theater was constructed to house the company in 1979 with help from the state and from local actor Polly Puterbaugh, who raised funds for the current barn-style theater on Twiggs Street known today as the Old Town Theatre.

After only eight months and several productions, Pirazzini mysteriously left and William R. Bruce took over the theater and, as artistic director, created the Old Town Opera House in 1980. San Diego State University operated in the space early in the 1980s, and from 1986 until 1991, the United States International University staged its student productions there.

The Francis W. Parker School reopened the theater in 1991 with help from Paula Kalustian and Jill Mesaros, who worked there for a time, and in 1994, they created Miracle Theatre Productions and officially took over the space. It became the second-longest tenured theatrical company at the Old Town Theatre, with a successful run from 1994 to 2006. Their musical smash hit “Forever Plaid” ran for a record five years.

The first time Cygnet’s Murray performed at the Old Town Theatre was in the 1980s, when he was fresh out of high school, in a production of “Scapino.”

“I have a lot of affection for that theater, partly because I kind of grew up there when I was younger, but also the relationship between the audience and the actor is really special in that theater,” he said.

Actor and educator Linda Libby agrees, having performed in 10 Cygnet shows at the Old Town Theatre.

Libby first took the stage in the musical “Cabaret” and appeared most recently as Aunt Eller in “Oklahoma!” She has experienced firsthand the audience interactions in shows like “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show” — as is tradition with the musical comedy horror show. She also recalls that during Cygnet’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” in 2016, an audience member took a line from the Sondheim song “The Ladies Who Lunch” a bit too literally.

“At one point she sings, ‘rise, rise, rise,’ and there’s a little pause,” Libby said, recalling playing the part of Joanne. “And this lady, about three rows up on the aisle, says in this great, Long Island accent, ‘Shall I rise?’ Everybody heard it, and you just all kind of froze for a minute … and then sang the final ‘rise!’ … You’re not allowed to, like, crack up.”

Cygnet is born

Cygnet’s first home, from 2003 to 2008, was in San Diego’s Rolando community near San Diego State University in the small strip mall space now occupied by Moxie Theatre on El Cajon Boulevard. Looking to expand in 2008, Cygnet signed a 10-year contract with the California Department of Parks and Recreation to become the concessionaire of the Old Town Theatre. That contract was contingent on Cygnet completing a minimum of $370,000 of capital improvements with one year, according to the initial request for proposal (RFP) from the theater company.

“What the state park does is … the rents tend to be reduced, but they usually want improvements to the buildings,” Schmidt said. “They wanted us to bring it up to current ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards. There wasn’t an adequate lighting and sound system attached to the building. Then in our RFP (Request for Proposal) we also proposed doing some other renovations to make it a better space for us.”

With the contract signed, the company promptly moved from Rolando to Old Town and mounted Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.” Directed by Murray, Cygnet’s first show was a success and raised $1 million — funds that led to the renovation of the theater in the summer and fall of 2008.

That production “was going to be in our season over there in Rolando and when we got the contract — before we were able to do the renovations — we moved it over to Old Town,” Murray said. “We were doing it with rented lighting dimmers with the original old cowboy carpet.”

Those renovations brought the Old Town Theatre up to state standards and modernized the aesthetics inside, but the 246-seat, three-quarter thrust space — where a stage with three sides extends into the audience gallery — still presented some challenges for the up-and-coming theater company.

Luckily, they had in a Murray a multifaceted theater aficionado. Besides being Cygnet’s co-founder and artistic director, the actor also directs and has done so every year since the company’s inception. Having directed more than 30 shows on the Old Town Theatre stage, Murray admits each show had its own set of unique challenges. And early on, one of the biggest challenges was the space itself.

“Learning how to stage things in the theater was a little bit of a learning curve over the first few productions,” Murray recalled. “It’s a very uniquely shaped space, which requires a specific approach to how you stage a show.”

San Diegan and actor Ariella Kvashny has played multiple roles on the Old Town Theater stage. She played the titular role Eva Peròn in “Evita” in 2023 and most recently played Laurey Williams in “Oklahoma!”

“I was shocked, actually, to hear that they hadn’t done that show in the Old Town space before because it is the perfect show for the little barn, but it was just a beautiful experience,” Kvashny said.

“Oklahoma!” typically employs a large cast and required some creativity with casting and staging from Murray, who directed the production.

“I think that’s actually one of Sean’s best qualities as a director. He really thinks outside of the box when it comes with staging and how to use every space,” Kvashny said.

What’s next?

Alejandra Enciso-Dardashti, creator of Desde Otro Cero, a bilingual website dedicated to the performing arts, has been reviewing plays at the Old Town Theatre on and off for 13 years and has special memories of the old barn.

“I love that space,” said Enciso-Dardashti, who also is vice president of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. “Cygnet Theatre is such a part of Old Town.”

While Enciso-Dardashti says she is happy for the Cygnet Theatre to grow, she wonders what will happen to the Old Town Theatre.

“It would be amazing to have productions in Spanish in Old Town,” she said. “That would be cool.”

Currently, there aren’t any shows in Spanish slated for the space in the near future, but the Old Town Theatre will continue to host productions for patrons visiting the Old Town State Park. Cygnet’s lease on the space continues through December 2026, so they are subletting the space to other performing arts organizations until then.

Arms Wide Open, a San Diego-based theater company that specializes in inclusive education and provides opportunities for artists with disabilities, has rented the space and will present the musical “Beetlejuice” in October.

Cygnet Theatre has come a long way since its first production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” performed in an old gym in a strip mall near San Diego State University. Its 15-year history in Old Town exemplifies the company’s professionalism and growth both on the stage and in terms of donor support.

Its time in Old Town has come to an end and the company is now poised to take up its permanent residency at the new $43.5 million arts complex, starting with its inaugural production of the musical “Follies,” which launches its 21st season on Sept. 10. The Joan — which opens with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 5 — was built to include two stages, one main 289-seat proscenium theater and one studio theater, rehearsal spaces and offices.

“There’s a lot of people from Point Loma who will be learning about us and learning about our theater,” Murray said of Cygnet’s new home. “I felt that the first play should be an exciting play — should stretch us as an artistic group, but it also needed to really be an accurate first impression of the kind of work we like to do.”